The tale of the awnings
We have over the last two years bought ourselves an awning for every occasion.
Are we addicted to awning and safari rooms I wonder.
Over the last couple of years we have bought a number of safari rooms and awnings all with some specific intentions in mind.

We had a 4mtr omnistor awning fixed to our first van.
So we thought we would buy ourselves that most essential of items a “safari room”. Now this is a safari room like no other. Its superb, with 3 cords fitted it fits a Fiamma, Omnistor and the RV markets.
It has UV protection which make it look very distinguished with its blacked out windows and doors.
A door at each end of the rooms allows for the rolling up of the door, leaving a mesh in place to allow fresh air in but keep those pesky flies out.
It is easy to set up with adjustable poles and will reach up to 2.6mtrs.
Made of a canvas type material it is hard wearing with a plastic bottom edge (easy for cleaning prior to packing away).

Stick a safari room on your awning and all of a sudden you have an additional room available to use. With some of these rooms reaching 4mtrs x 3mtrs that's a lot of room to add on to your motorhome.

So we now have safari room. However a safari room doesn't allow you to easy drive away for the day a leave your safari room up and in situ.

So off we go to buy a drive-away awning. From the small ads in the local paper we find a drive-away awning for less than £100. Now that is a bargain.
Off we pop to have look at it and guess what, it is in fantastic condition. I talk to the guy selling and it seems he has had problems with his motorhome and as such, he has sold it and is left with a few bits that he is selling off. Feeling a little sorry for the guy I agree to pay his asking price and happily take the awning home.
The next weekend we are off again visiting one of the local sites to enjoy the delights of motorhoming in winter. And although it's not cold it's not T-shirt weather either yet, so keep wrapped up.

The van is all set up, the kettle is on and my cup of tea is coming along nicely so I think now is as good a time as any to put the new drive-away up.

The guy I bought it from had been good enough to colour code all the poles so that it was fairly easy to put the frame together, even though it is quite heavy to man-handle. Once the frame was together it was time to put the canvas covering on. Now this must have proved at least a little amusing to the on watchers, as I struggle to lift it, move it, pull it over, fit it. All to find that the frame was the wrong way round. It had to be lifted up and circled some 180 degrees. Not an easy task when your assistant is a woman of only 5'5” tall and the frame is 6' and weighs enough to drop your hernia.

Anyway we get there, the drive-away is erected, the cover is on, the frame is the right way round. However, why is it that the frame only seems to come so far up the door? We check it out and there is a panel which we can lift to the top of the van. If the van was about 4' shorter than it is. It would seem that the drive-away would be ideal if we had a car, or even a small conversion van, but we don't. So, we pack it all up in it's bags and now we have two awnings/safari rooms.

OK we made a mistake on the last one, so lets think things through properly next time and not waste any more money.
Strangely enough the guy didn't want to give me my money back either, huh! So much for feeling sorry for him.

It's winter, the safari room gives us a lot of extra space and we are enjoying the comfort afforded by the extra room available.

It's now summer and we have been enjoying our extra space thoroughly.
However, winter is approaching and “she who must be obeyed” is concerned that the safari room may get dirty in the winter when we use it and instead of cleaning it and trying to maintain it, lets look for a dark coloured one we can use through the winter. Then if it does get any stains that don't wash off easily they will at least be harder to see if the material is dark blue for instance.

Off we go looking for a new extension to our fixed awning.
At the Newbury show we find just what we are looking for.
A dark blue awning with the breathable flooring for just under £100.
That sounds familiar.

Now a few months have passed the summer is nearly over, we have not managed to get out and about as much as last year, but we have used our safari room a couple of time and our dark blue one once, oh and did I mention that we have also changed vans now and our new van has a 3.5mtr fixed awning.

But that's OK, because we have gone a bought a 3.5mtr drive-away awning for just over £100, sound familiar but a little costlier.

We now have four safari rooms/awnings one of which is the right size.
So if when you read your local rag a see in the free adverts a number of awnings up for sale please come round.

Oh and please feel a little sorry for the seller and give him the full asking price.

If you would like to have an article published or, you have comments relating to either an existing article, or you may just wish to ask a question, please let us know by email